Review: THE NUT JOB

Peter Lepeniotis’ The Nut Job follows every single children movie troupe it can. Scratch that it uses every movie troupe it can. There is a whole moral dilemma to learn for the main character, he has a love interest, a sidekick and an individual comes in to rage against our characters. It is filled with immature jokes for the young kids and even immature jokes for the parents. It also contains references from other films. The Nut Job may be the most unoriginal movie in a long time.

Surly is a squirrel who thinks outside the box. He is an inventor of sorts that due to his inventiveness makes a few misfires. At the point we meet him he has made a contraption that ends up blowing up a tree, there is a literal Michael Bay type explosion, which holds all the food for him and the other animals. He is kicked out of the group and goes off on his own with his mute mouse friend, Buddy. Surly dedicated to make it up to his peers; plans to break in to a nut shop and steal their entire product. With all of that going on the store owners end up being to-be bank robbers with the nut shop as a decoy hideout.

Those whose minds go into the gutter when they hear the title will be pleased with the humor. Those who love puns about food are in luck. Those who like jokes about bodily fluids, this film is right up your alley. So the jokes are not very good, they are not too ridiculous and most may enjoy some, but don’t get your hopes up. The plot obviously from the explanation is not intellectually or emotionally stimulating. Young children will love the characters and the jokes, but there is probably a very thin line for what age that might be.

The signs of apathy in the plot details make for odd holes in the story. There is a sort of guard dog for the human characters that when he acts up they blow a dog whistle to make him quiet down. For some reason there is a shady old man who can hear the dog whistle as well. Why? Later in the climax this weird fact pays off, but it also creates this strange mystery surrounding this man. Of course it is never talked about or given a real explanation. To the over analytic this will frustrate them to no end. Does it matter? No, but why have someone have an odd characteristic and never reveal the mystery of the man who shall be named, Dogman?

The Nut Job is surely a waste of time and will not be talked about much in the coming years. There is the odd mystery of Dogman who can be analyzed for ironic enjoyment. The jokes are bad, the story is unoriginal and, hey, even the animation is not pleasing to look at.